Yaregal

(ETHIOPIA 19)

summary

Owing to changes in land cultivation and declining agricultural production, the narrator’s former livelihood as a sharecropper was no longer tenable and he was trained by SOS Sahel workers in beekeeping. His new occupation has enabled him to send his sons to school. He talks positively about of the value of education, including health education, and is grateful for the improved communications that the building of the Chinese road has brought. Although he talks approvingly of women’s rights being recognised he is fearful that educating girls may mean they fall in love with someone and run away. He expresses his desire for peace to come to his country.

Land tenure – old system of ownership and tenancy described. Redistribution – equal amount regardless of status: “So the people are grateful, but there isn’t enough land and the rains do not come regularly.” Market conditions – poverty forcing everyone to sell livestock, causing a sharp drop in prices. Benefits from education, health and agricultural services.
Social institutions and festivals – Iqub (traditional rotating credit and savings association) and Tezkar (feast to commemorate one’s dead ) described.

Early marriage in the past – marriages did not last. Harmfulness of divorce – women going to the towns and becoming “concubines”; men going to live with their lovers. Changing social relationships – Muslims and artisans no longer discriminated against; women’s rights recognised.
Changes in methods of dealing with crime – formerly society sanctioned revenge: “Now you cannot take the law into your own hands.”

Care of the elderly and the disabled – existence of state-run ‘homes’ in the towns; community now too poor to share the responsibility.
Meket people’s distinctive traditions (sings a wedding song).
Training in beekeeping: now earns income from this instead of share-cropping.

Importance of education: “I say that any man here who begets a child and condemns him to a livelihood of farming is an accursed person.” Believes, however, that an educated woman might bring shame on the family by running awaywith a lover – prefers to see his daughters married locally.
Benefits of the road built by the Chinese – facilitates business and trade: “The opportunity to travel by car has brightened our lives.”